


Twin Souls

by Nympharum1356



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Avatar States Are Hard, F/M, Iroh is AWESOME, Zuko's Kind of A Softie at Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 05:24:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19350376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nympharum1356/pseuds/Nympharum1356
Summary: In each of the Avatars before them, there was a single soul. One Avatar at a time.What happens when the Avatar spirit is split in half inside a pair of twins?Aang and Aara must learn to work together to save the world, while Aara must battle a longing and a terrible fondness for a certain fiery prince.





	Twin Souls

**Author's Note:**

> I changed the ages of the characters other than Zuko, just to give them a bit more of an even ground. Aara and Aang are 14, Katara is 15, Sokka and Zuko are 16.
> 
> This fic is rated T right now but its likely to change later on.

All she could remember was the storm.

Rain and wind buffeting her. The chill of icy air freezing her every breath.

She'd done her best to keep a shield around them, but she'd been unable to maintain it. They became separated in the storm when she fell from the saddle.

She remembered water. She remembered freezing.

Then the Avatar state was triggered, and she remembered nothing at all.  
  
-  
  
Aara dreamed for years, while she lay dormant inside her own body. She dreamed of great sea creatures, of frozen winds and icy tundra. She dreamed of seeing the red flag of the Fire Nation spread across the world like a splash of crimson paint. Great metal boats that surfed through the ice.  
She dreamed of trees and mountains set ablaze. She dreamed of the cries of birds and the screams of women. Most of all however, she dreamed of her brother Aang, wondering if she would ever see him again.  
  
-  
  
Aara woke within her own body, unbearably cold. She flexed her fingers as best as she could, trying to work some feeling back into them. Her feet did the same, stretching her toes within her modest shoes. Frost coated her eyelashes, sparkling in the midday sun. The ice surrounding her was like a mirror with all the sunlight.  
Hmm. She was either near the North Pole or the South. They were the only places with such low temperatures and icebergs. I wonder how I got here. Standing up, Aara noted she was in a bowl of some kind, likely formed by the Avatar state when she'd been drowning. How odd. The Avatar state had saved her life. A loud squeak made her jump, glancing at her feet to see a small penguin rubbing against her boot.

"Oh! Why hello little one." Aara bent to pick up the tiny creature, feeling it nuzzle into her palms. "Aren't you sweet? Wheres your mama? She's probably worried about you." Aara bent her knees and jumped upward, using her power to give her extra lift. Being an airbender helped a great deal sometimes. Once she'd cleared the bowl, Aara was greeted with the sight of endless ocean dappled with ice floes. "Where are we, little one?" she asked the penguin. The small creature squeaked at her again, stretching its six flippers and yawning before curling up in her palms. Well great, now she had a sleepy baby penguin and probably a very worried mama looking for her offspring. Aara began to wander toward the sounds of honking, hoping she would encounter this baby's colony.

She didn't make it however.

A blast of fire knocked her off her feet, and Aara was barely able to form an air bubble underneath herself to cushion her fall. The baby penguin in her grasp squeaked in panic as it was jostled. Aara looked to the direction the fire blast had come from, seeing a line of advancing soldiers led by a young man. He was handsome to say the least, as most young men were. This one had a nasty red scar on the right side of his face. His hair was pulled up on top of his head in a viciously tight pony tail, and the golden band around his neck suggested royalty. Fire Nation Royalty.

"Well, well, well. What do I have here?" The young man growled as he strode toward her. "An Air Bender. My lucky day."

"Who are you?" she asked, taking a precursory step back, clutching the penguin protectively in her left hand, while removing her gliding staff from her back with the other. She’d trained herself to fight one handed, but trying to bend without both could be a challenge.

"Prince Zuko, of the Fire Nation. You will bow before your future King!" he shouted, grabbing her by her shoulder to force her to her knees. Aara resisted, using her abilities to keep a block of hard air beneath her while knocking his hand away with her staff.

"I will not, as I do not know who you are. Fire Lord Sozin is King of the Fire Nation." Aara tilted her head to the side, scrutinizing the young man in front of her. "I can feel that your abilities are great, but you still have much to learn."

"Nephew, I believe you should leave her be." An older looking man came forward, a gold ring seated in his pony tail. A general? "She appears to be carrying an infant penguin. If its mother notices its absence, she will make her way to this young woman quickly and she will not be pleased."

"Sozin has been dead for a hundred years. Now. Unhand the creature." Zuko demanded of her. Aara shook her head. This situation was turning south fast. Zuko moved to slap the penguin from her hands when a blast of blue light shot into the sky just west of them, distracting Zuko and the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers. “The Avatar...”  
"Brother...” she whispered as she stared out at the beacon. Aang must have come out of the Avatar state. She had to get to him. Zuko grabbed her arm instead of the penguin just as a loud ferocious bark reached her ears. The mother. Aara watched the angry mother penguin slide over the ice ridge, teeth bared. The baby in her hands mewled at his mother and wiggled to be free. Struggling out of Zuko’s iron grip, Aara bent at the waist and placed him on the ground, using her air bending to slide him toward his mother. She barked once more as her pup reached her, guiding him back towards their colony.

“You’re coming with me.” Zuko told her, gripping her arm again to drag her back to their ship. Knowing full well that she could break his hold if she wanted, Aara simply dug her feet into the snow, needing answers, but keeping a good grip on her staff nonetheless.

“What do you want with the Avatars?”

“There’s only one Avatar, foolish girl. I’ll be capturing him soon enough and you’ll have an Air Nomad to keep you company on the way back to the Fire Nation.” The soldiers fell in line around them, presumably to keep her surrounded. “Once the Avatar has been returned to my father, he’ll be executed, and we’ll no longer have to worry about you pesky nomads. Maybe my father will keep you alive as a pet.” Prince Zuko sneered.

“I won’t let you hurt my brother!” Aara took a deep breath, and expelled as forcefully as she could while she turned in a circle. The guards were all forced away from her and knocked to the ground. Zuko landed face down in the snow but recovered quickly.

“Brother? That’s impossible. The Avatar has one soul.” He faced her in a fighting stance. Aara stepped into one as well, staff held loosely in her grip.

“You know nothing Zuko.” she hissed, twirling her staff to create an air shield between them. “I would sooner die than let you lay a hand on my brother!” Slicing a blast of air at him, Zuko dodged only to toss a wave of fire at her. Aara felt the heat of the wave as she nimbly avoided it, jumping high into the air. She sent a blast of air back at the ground, knocking the soldiers away and Zuko back several feet. Aara landed and took off running in the direction of the fading blue beacon.

“Grab the girl!” Zuko shouted. His entourage shook the snow from their uniforms and gave chase immediately, following her over the frozen tundra. Aara flew over the snow, her feet barely touching the ground. Clouds of misty snow and ice came up in her wake.  
The beacon had been west of here, maybe only a few miles. If she could get to Aang, they stood a better chance of fighting together, but...

Aang wasn’t nearly as experienced as her. While she’d been studying hard to learn the advanced airbending techniques, Aang had been off fooling around with Gyatso. Their combined soul made up the Avatar Spirit, but their minds were only linked in their dreams. In order for Aang to share her knowledge, she had to teach him via dream, something he’d never wanted to learn to do. Aara had to protect him, no matter what. In order to do that, she couldn’t be there to stand in front of him.  
So she slowed her pace, and said a prayer to the spirits to guide and protect her baby brother. When her staff was taken from her, she didn’t fight. When her arms were bound behind her by the Fire Nation soldiers, she didn’t struggle, and as she was dragged aboard Zuko’s ship, she didn’t say a single word.  
  
-  
  
Strangely, she wasn’t escorted to the prison hold in the ship like she’d expected, but rather directly to Zuko’s private chambers. The guard holding her by the elbow came to a halt before a door emblazoned with the Fire Nation emblem. He knocked only once and opened the door at the muffled ‘enter’. Aara was shoved into the room, and the heavy metal was locked behind her. Zuko was sitting in a chair directly across from the door, facing her, one foot braced on the opposite knee. If glares were as powerful as his fire bending, she would have likely melted. 

“What do you want?”

He was staring at her. He didn’t speak, all he did was look.

“Well?” she demanded. Like a lion, he gracefully unfolded himself from his chair and strode toward her. Still he said nothing, only circled her like she was prey. “If you’re not going to talk, I will leave.” That got his attention. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the back of the neck.

“You’re not going anywhere.” he snarled at her.

“Then tell me what you want from me!” At her frustrated shout, Zuko gave her a smug grin and stepped back, retaking his seat to continue to stare at her.

“What’s your name?” Zuko asked. His voice was low and soft, but no less threatening. She knew she was sitting in a proverbial lions den and she had no wish to poke the creature.

"A question for a question, Prince Zuko." Aara remembered the subtle art of deflection she'd learned from the confusing monks who'd trained her. Air was never constant, but always changing, thus it served her to be the same. Zuko huffed but nodded, nevertheless. "What year is this?" 

"Give me your answer first, and I'll answer your question." Aara expelled air out her nose, but complied.

"My name is Aara, a nomad of the Southern Air Temple." 

" _Aara._ " Zuko murmured, testing her name on his tongue. "I suppose I owe you an answer, then. This year is 99 AG. Roku died in 14 BG." He tilted his head sideways to look at her again. "How old are you?" 

_AG? BG?_ What did those year markers mean? Why did she feel like she didn't want to know? There was a sinking feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with lack of food. 

"I.. I'm fourteen. What do those markers mean? AG and BG?" Noting the nervous tone in her voice, Zuko eyed her warily.

"Those mark the Air Nomad Genocides. Fire Lord Sozin ordered the Air Temples to be sacked and the monks killed. When Roku died, it meant the next incarnation would be an Air Bender. Sozin wanted to make sure that never happened." Aara was sure she'd stopped breathing. "Roku died fourteen years before the genocide, which means that you would've been born as he died. How did you survive for a hundred years?"

Aara couldn't breathe, much less answer his question. A hundred years? She and Aang had been trapped in the Avatar state for a hundred years?! And their people... Gyatso and the rest of the monks.. they were all gone. Oh spirits, it would break her brother's heart.

"I.. we.. My brother and I were trapped in the ice. There was a storm.. We were trying to fly through it and we were separated. I fell into the water and... I woke up in the ice pocket you found me in this morning." Zuko was staring at her like she'd grown two heads.

"You were in the ice for a hundred years? That explains everything."

" _Everything?!_ All it explains is where we've been for the last hundred years! How did you manage to wipe out my people? How did they murder the Air Nomads?" Each question burned inside her like steam. She could feel it filling her until she thought she would explode. The ropes around her wrists were suddenly gone, and her hands were free to bend once more. There was a brightness filling the room, like shades of white. Zuko took two steps back from her, and then two more.

"Aara.." he murmured. "Aara breathe." A voice that wasn't her own replied.

_**No. We will not.**_  

Aara blacked out once more, lost inside the Avatar state.

 

 


End file.
